The invention relates to a shavings conveyor in which shavings and coolant are received on the upper run of a conveyor belt which carries scraper strips that travel along a wear plate to carry away the shavings.
Shavings conveyors of this type are known in the art as so-called upper run shavings conveyors. They are used above all in machine tools which remove shavings, serving to take away the shavings which are produced. The shavings to be taken away are delivered to the shavings conveyor particularly in the region of its non-driven rear turn-round section through an opening arranged on the upper face and extending over a specific part of the length of the shavings conveyor.
Since a large quantity of the cooling fluid which is necessary for cooling the tool generally passes together with the shavings into the shavings conveyor, care must be taken to ensure that this cooling fluid can run off separately from the shavings which are to be removed. For this purpose an outlet connected to an appropriate container is generally provided in the conveyor housing in the region of the rear turn-round section. If in the case of these known shavings conveyors the conveyor belt takes the form of a scraper conveyor belt (with scraper conveyor strips) and a conveying base associated with the upper run of this conveyor belt, then outlet holes (similar to a perforated screen) are provided for example in this conveying base through which the cooling fluid can run off downwards, whilst the shavings are removed separately.
However, in these known constructions a number of difficulties occur. For instance it repeatedly happens that shavings become jammed in the outlet openings for the cooling fluid and thus hinder or entirely stop the movement of the conveyor belt. If the coolant openings are too small or even if the quantities of coolant are too great, the housing of the shavings conveyor becomes so full of cooling fluid that it is no longer capable of receiving and removing the fluid in the necessary manner. On the other hand, however, there is a requirement to keep the overall height of a shavings conveyor as low as possible.